Any person feeling aggrieved by any decision of the department of ecology may have the same reviewed pursuant to RCW 43.21B.310. In any such review, the findings of fact as set forth in the report of the department of ecology shall be prima facie evidence of the fact of any waiver or relinquishment of a water right or portion thereof. If the hearings board affirms the decision of the department, a party seeks review in superior court of that hearings board decision pursuant to chapter 34.05 RCW, and the court determines that the party was injured by an arbitrary, capricious, or erroneous order of the department, the court may award reasonable attorneys' fees.
RCW 90.14.190
Water resources decisions—Appeals—Attorneys' fees.
Applied in 12 court decisions — leading case 128 Wash. 2d 508 - Rettkowski v. Department of Ecology (1996)
Most recently applied in Pacific Land Partners, LLC v. Dept. of Ecology (June 2009)
1987 c 109 s 14; 1967 c 233 s 19.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.